Day 250– 15th August 09
Saturday – Watson Lake, Yukon
I met another Aussie today, all the way up here 🙂
Well, I slept in and it was great, I really needed that 🙂 When I did get mobile it was to run to town and see a bank, closed, it is Discovery Day, rats, I only had US dollars and they will only exchange 1 for 1 in the shops, even though I would normally get $108 for $100, rascals or some such word!! 😡
Anyway, this is the reason things were closed or about to be, I found this via Google about the Yukon Discovery Day
[Gold was discovered in north-western Yukon territory on August 16, 1896. The discovery of placer gold on Rabbit Creek – later known as Bonanza Creek – touched off the great Klondike Gold Rush.
The discovery was made by George Carmack and his aboriginal friends Skookum Jim Mason and Tagish Charlie. While Carmack always maintained that he was the first to find gold, both Jim and Charlie agreed that it was Jim’s discovery. The claim was registered the next morning on August 17.
At the height of the great Gold Rush, Dawson City — named after George Dawson of the Geological Survey of Canada — was the largest city west of Winnipeg and north of Seattle with a population of 30,000. Once the gold ran out, the adventurers moved on. Today, the Yukon is one of the most remote and under populated regions of the world.]
So, I continued on and tried to get some thick rubber bands, no chance, I bought some snare wire as I needed something for repairs and a piece of wood to make a sign for the forest 🙂 When I got back to the campsite to start work I was told about the parade in town at 11am, I had ten minutes to get there and bought some fried chook for brunch while watching the short parade go past.
I was enjoying watching this young fella in front of me, he was in lolly heaven, every float pelted him with lollies and his hands were not big enough to get them all 🙂 What big red firetruck!!
It was soon over and I spent the rest of the day in the shop on the net getting these pages up to date. I eventually decided it was beer time around 6pm and went looking for a bar, I found another bike rider at the forest and we had a chat.
This is Alex from New York, he is heading north, brrr, but had no choice on his timing, so good on him for trying. He will be heading south again soon, so I may bump into him again later. Well, after this I looked for a pub and eventually found out that the only bar was having a wedding, pay $50 to go in for a beer, no way, I could not buy a single beer at the servo, it has to be 6 or nothing, so it was nothing. Then I was informed about the baseball diamond around the corner, there is a comp on and beer is available, so off I shot and after getting a beer in a plastic mug was told that chap out there in the yellow on 1st base is an Aussie as well 🙂
There were not many people here, but those that were had been here all day on the turps, my type of people 🙂
So I watched some baseball and some skills sessions while chatting to Eathen from down near Toowoomba in my home state. His grandfather owns a RV park in town and he is helping out. He was born here but spent his life in Qld.
I have forgotten the other two chaps names, sorry dudes, beer and no pen does that to me 🙂 Now this is a bad dog, when the skills competition was happening and they were running around the bases for a timed event, he got away and chased one bloke, I am not sure if he won but he was fast 🙂 😆
Now this chap really reminded me of Dero Dave back home when we did the Rumble to the Rock, in fact his name is Dave as well 🙂
This is Dero Dave for comparison, he is the skinny one on the left.
So, I had a few more beers and watched a bit more fun before heading back.
Once there I had a shower and I had also grabbed some more fried chook for dinner. I had bought some coke because I had a bottle of Vodka and sat down and listened to music and chatted with some people back home. It was a Saturday night and the campground was buzzing with music beer and fireworks 🙂 It was a late night, about 3am I think, so I would be going nowhere tomorrow!!
Day 19 miles and 31 km
Trip – 31,338 miles and 50,534 km
Cheers
TravellingStrom
TravellingStrom 